Tianbao Zhu
The Biography of His Life
Early life
Tainbao Zhu is my grandfather, on my mother’s side. He was born in March 2nd, 1933. His father is Baohe Zhu and his mother is Zhaodin Xue. Tianbao Zhu also has a big sister named Shengjing Zhu. In his entire childhood, He has lived in Wuyi, a little village in Zhejiang Province that was surrounded with mountains. Just after he was born, China was in hard times. China’s technology and government system was behind all the western countries.
My grandfather has always wished for an education. Since he was a farmer’s child, School fee was too much to afford. Most of the time my grandpa just helped his father and mother do chores around the house. LIfe was very hard. Also, signs of war were also spreading. At 1938 Japanese army were storming through China's borders.
The war wasn't going well for China. Japan has cut through the borders of China and now was moving toward grandpa’s homeland. Finally at May 6th, 1942, the Japan army entered Wuyi. When villagers heard that the dangerous Japanese Army was close, they raced to the nearest hilltop into the trees. At this time my great grandfather, Baohe Zhu remembered that they didn’t hide their bags of rice. The Japanese army was sure to rob priceless food like the rice. He ran back down to hide their rice. That was probably the biggest regret in his life. Just at that time the Japanese Army attacked. Baohe Zhu hid in the bathroom but still was caught by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese soldiers herded Baohe Zhu near a trench. The Japanese soldiers noticed that Baohe Zhu was in good shape. They ordered him to work for Japan. But he did not agree because he would not be a traitor to his own country. Then one Japanese soldier killed him with a dagger. He fell into the trench and his blood soaked up the water.
Since that my great grandfather was murdered, life became ever harder for my grandpa and his family. My grandpa’s mother had fallen ill so that put all the responsibility of the family on my grandpa’s sister’s shoulders. My grandpa and his sister tried for jobs that would help keep their family alive. One day my grandpa heard of a school where you could get a scholarship if you got 100 on admission test. The test doesn't need money. My grandpa thought education was the key to a nice stable job. One winter morning, not having a layer of socks protecting his feet, he convinced a teacher to let him take the test. The test results came right up. Grandpa got one problem wrong, making him feel like a failure. Then he noticed that the wrong problem wasn't wrong. He got a 100. He told his sister who told the teacher. The teacher happily let my grandpa stay in the school. Life was hard but grandpa was driven away by education.